


The Game

by mmtittle



Category: IT (2017)
Genre: AU, Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, Gayyyyyyy, M/M, One Shot, Reddie, Transferred from Wattpad, a tiny hint of benverly, first fic, i threw in stenbrough because I love my bois, i’m not a very good writer, lots of fluff, really bad, very soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-21
Updated: 2018-02-21
Packaged: 2019-03-22 07:46:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13759518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mmtittle/pseuds/mmtittle
Summary: Everybody and his brother knows the game. Your friend writes a name on your palm and you can't look at it until 3:00 pm. If you do, you have to kiss that person. But one person hates the game with a passion. What lengths will his friends go to to get him to play?





	The Game

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I hope you like this! I’m not really a writer so it’s not suppose to be that good but I hope it’s at least enjoyable. All the credit for the concept goes to my friend, Rena! Lots of love, Molly (mmtittle on Twitter)

Everybody and his brother knew the game. The premise was a simple one. Somebody wrote a name on the palm of your hand and you weren't allowed to look at it until 3:00 PM, when the final bell rung. If you snuck a peek or had someone else tell you, you lose and have to kiss the person who's name is on your hand. It seems like it would be easy but the temptation is killer. The player almost always gives in and looks at their hand. The game is how Ben and Beverly /finally/ got together. But there was one person who always refused to play.

Eddie Kaspbrak despised the game with every fiber of his being.  
"It's ridiculous and completely juvenile. Do you /know/ how many germs can be spread through a single kiss. And the very concept of kissing somebody over a dumb game, it's inane." Eddie passionately spewed to the Loser's Club over lunch. They were sophomore and you think they'd have outgrown it by now. But the game still popped up every couple of months.  
"Oh come on, Eds, you know you'd kill for the chance to kiss me!"

Everyone and his brother knew about Richie Tozier's crush on Eddie. Well, crush isn't the right word. He was in love. And everyone was almost positive the feelings were reciprocated. They got tired of waiting, so Bill, Ben, Stan, Bev, and Mike teamed up.  
"Oh come on, Eds, you know you'd kill for a chance to kiss me." Richie teased, making kissy noises.  
"Don't call me Eds," Eddie exclaimed, almost as an involuntary first instinct, "And in your dreams, Tozier."  
"I honestly don't think a frog would voluntarily kiss you, Trashmouth!" pointed out Stan with an eye roll.  
"Whatever, Shirley Temple. Your mom loved it last night!" Richie retorted quickly.  
"C-cuh-come on, Eddie, we all did it!"

That was true. The first of them to be daring enough to play was Bill in seventh grade. He had made it to sixth period before giving up and had to give Beverly a quick kiss. This was when Bill still liked her, long before Benverly was a thing. The next victim was Mike who saw the name while washing his hands. He quickly pecked Betty Finn, much to his asexual dismay. In eighth grade, Richie was eager to play and gave up almost immediately. Instead of finding a name, somebody (not to point fingers but it was either Eddie or Stanley, he was sure of it) had cleverly written "my ass" for who to kiss. Ben and Beverly went as freshmen on the same day. People thought Ben's head was actually going to explode when they first kissed. They'd gone out ever since, the rest was history. The last was Stan. Stanley Uris was the only one of the losers who was actually patient enough to make it the entire day. Which was actually quite a shame as if he had looked, he would have known the name on his hand was none other than his crush: the one and only Bill Denbrough. The only loser yet to play was Eddie. So as expected, the kids were eager to see him play.

"It's not a big deal, Kaspbrak. Who knows, maybe something good will come from it. It did for me." Beverly said as she laid her head on  
Ben who was nodding vigorously.  
"Don't b-be a puh-p-pussy!" Bill said exasperated.  
"He doesn't even like pussy. How could he be one?" Richie laughed.  
"Beep beep, Richie." Mike and Stan said in unison, the latter rolling his eyes as always.  
"Come on, you should try it. Don't feel pressured to though. You don't have to if you don't want to." Mike sweetly reassured him.  
"Puh-puh-please. Please E-Eddie."  
"Oh my god, B-B-Bill! Can you get through a single sentence without stuttering?!" Richie mocked.  
"I hate to agree with Richie when he's being an ass, but he's right. How the hell are you going to get through the English presentation today?" Eddie reluctantly agreed.  
"Is that a challenge?" Stanley questioned.  
Eddie thought on it for a second. "Yeah, it is. I bet Bill that there is no way he can make it through today's English presentation without stuttering."  
"Ooh this just got interesting!" Ben stated, emerging from his book and Mike's head turned.  
"W-what's the wager?" Bill asked, scared of what Eddie had in mind.  
Out of nowhere, Beverly came springing to their side of the table and mischievously whispered in Eddie's ear and then Richie's. Richie started chuckling as Eddie's eyes bulged.  
"If and when I win, you and Stanley have to kiss!" Bill looked over at Stan reluctantly and agreed.  
"F-fine! But WHEN I w-win, you.. h-h-have to play the g-game!"  
Eddie shook his hand, certain of his imminent victory.

Eighth period was English with Bill, Stan, Eddie, and Richie. They sat in the back of the room, waiting for Bill's turn to present.  
"I'm Bill Denbrough and I'm presenting on the reoccurring theme of innocence in To Kill a Mockingbird."  
Eddie sat there, astounded. I'm the full five minute presentation. He couldn't hear Bill stumble once. Stanley smirked over at him as Richie fell silent, for once in his life.  
"H-h-how did you do that?? That's impossible!" Eddie raised his voice.  
"Who's the one s-stuttering now? Tomorrow morning, be r-ready, Kaspbrak."  
Eddie sat there, mouth wide open, astonished. The rest of the boys walked away and Eddie stayed put, embarrassed at his fate.

The next morning, Eddie reluctantly walked into Bill's homeroom to find all the losers waiting.  
"Did you really have to bring all of them?" Eddie questioned.  
"This is a historic moment, Eddie Spaghetti!"  
"I tried to stop them, sorry bud." Mike prompted.  
"S-stay here. We're gonna go d-decide who we're writing."  
"Hey! This wasn't supposed to be a group thing! It was supposed to be between us." Eddie protested.  
"Sorry, Eddie!" Ben added as all the kids sans Eddie huddled up. After a minute's deliberation, Richie came over and told Eddie to hold out his hand.  
"Why are you doing this, Trashmouth? Shouldn't it be Bill?"  
"Because I'm special and everyone loves me." Richie floated as he wrote the final letter and capped the sharpie.  
"That's not w-why. You know the rules" Bill sighed.  
"No looking until 3:00! If you do, pucker up!" Beverly reiterated.  
"Whatever, I'm sure it's not hard." Eddie groaned as he walked to his first period.

He was right. It wasn't hard; it was practically /impossible/. Eddie spent all of his morning classes doing whatever he could to avoid staring at the ticking time bomb on his right hand. He couldn't hear a word his teachers said, especially not when Richie leaned over to tease him, baiting him to read it. After what seemed like years, Eddie finally made it to lunch

"Give in yet?" Stan asked  
"You know you wanna, Eds."  
"Fuck off. I'm going to go wash my hands." Eddie's side eye was off the chart  
"W-we'll know if you p-peek!" Bill yelled after him, turning back around to talk to Beverly, Ben, and Mike.

The second Eddie walked into the bathroom, he got his inhaler out and took a huge breath. He shuts the door to a stall and locks it quickly. Since nobody can see, there should be no harm in a little peek. Eddie knew he was risking everything but the suspense was killing him. He flipped his hand to read the messy scrawl in thick black sharpie on his palm.

'Richie Tozier'

'Fuck! I can't kiss Richie!' He thought to himself. 'Thank god nobody knows'  
Eddie washed his hand and quickly wiped off his face before sitting back down with his friends.

"Um, Eddie, you didn't happen to look, did you?" Ben asked suspiciously.  
"No! Why the fuck would I do that?"  
"Your f-face says otherwise. F-f-fess up" Bill demanded.  
Eddie quickly ran back to the bathroom to find black sharpie smudged onto his face. 'Shit, it must have rubbed off when I touched my face!' Eddie thought to himself.

"That doesn't mean anything! I didn't look!"  
"If you didn't look, you wouldn't mind us checking the writing. If it isn't smudged, you're telling the truth." Richie smirked at him.  
He was screwed. The writing was most definitely already smeared.  
"Why?! It doesn't matter! I didn't look! It's just a stupid game! I-i-i"  
"Why so defensive?" Stan laughed as Bill examined Eddie's tiny hand.  
"You l-looked. You know what that m-means, Ed." Bill smiled at his own evilness.  
"That's not fair! Please lord anybody but him!"  
"Come on, Eddie Spaghetti. Pucker up! I don't bite! Unless that's a kink of yours..." Richie smirked as he leaned in closer.  
"Beep beep, Richie." Eddie sighed, closing his eyes. His lips met Richie's and his mind went black. Butterflies escaped from his stomach and for a moment, all his fear around kissing and Richie disappeared. It started soft yet neither boy pulled apart.  
"You do know you only have to peck, right?" Mike laughed as Bev gestured for him to shut up and let them kiss.  
After what seemed like eternity, the two boys pulled apart. Eddie was blushing like crazy as he took a hit from his inhaler.  
Bill leaned in and whispered, "You're welcome."

At the end of the day, Eddie walked up to Bill and Stan alone to question them.  
"So I'm not mad anymore because I got a boyfriend out of it but why the hell would you choose Richie!?"  
Richie came sneaking in as Stan looked puzzled.  
"/We/ didn't choose. Richie wrote the name."  
As if on cue, Richie revealed himself.  
"Richie! You wrote it! Fuck you!"  
"I won't but you should." He smiled, pulling in the tiny boy for another kiss.  
"Let's go home, 'Chee." Eddie blushed, grabbing his hand and walking out.

Bill and Stan sat awkwardly, legs pressed up against one another until Bill broke the silence.  
"Is it b-bad that I w-was a little sad to lose?" Bill sheepishly asked.  
Stan gazed at him longingly and giggled. "It is a shame. It doesn't have to be though..." With that, Stan cupped his face and both boys leaned in softly.

Maybe the game wasn't so bad...

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Love you! Feel free to leave comments with constructive criticism. I really appreciate the feedback. Let me know if I should try and write more.


End file.
